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Monday, June 3, 2013

Overthinking Cups

GSI really knows the way to my wallet

As you can see in the photo above, I've got a small collection of polypropylene cups at this point. They're all GSI, and I have two of each. It seems like I should be getting a vendor discount or something from GSI by now. They at least need to send me a t-shirt.Anyways, I went shopping for fishing gear this weekend (more on that in a forthcoming post) and I ended up with more cups. In my post on my current backpacking gear, I mentioned I'd been using the GSI Insulated Infinity Mug, which holds 17 ounces, has a sleeve and lid, and weighs in at 2.93 ounces on my scale with the lid and sleeve, and 2.12 without. Well the sporting goods store had two more GSI cups. The first was the GSI Cascadian cup, which holds 12 ounces, and was listed at 1.7 ounces, but came in at 1.87 ounces on my scale. The second was the GSI Infinity Stacking cup, which hold 14 ounces and was listed at 1.8 ounces, but came in at 1.73 ounces on my scale. You can click any of the three images below to enlarge them.

Next I dumped boiling water into each cup to see how how the plastic got. Unsurprisingly, they all felt about the same - not too hot to hold for a few seconds, but too hot to hold without the handle or the sleeve for a long time.

The other consideration is that both the Cascadian and the Infinity Stacking have volume graduations, making them great for backcountry cooking, which the Insulated does not. The Cascadian's markings are on the inside of the cup. The Infinity Stacking has them on the outside, oriented to be read from the outside. It's a little odd to me that the product descriptions have incorrect weights for the two new cups; maybe they changed the mold or something and didn't update the info. In any case, the Infinity Stacking turned out to be lightest, and have the best volume measurements, and is probably going to be my new backpacking cup.I also wanted to show the GSI Fairshare Mug I used to carry before I started on this lightweight obsession, which held a full liter, but weighed in at 7.66 ounces. I use it now as a pancake batter mixing bowl while car camping, but not so much backpacking.